When the Dead Awaken - Part 1 of 2

Posted on 29 May 2012 @ 3:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday

2,393 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay
Timeline: MD7 1930hours

[ON]

After the senior briefing this morning, Pola hadn't had a chance to take Jonathan to the side in order to speak with him. A number of issues had arisen during the meeting which had given her reasons for concern, as well as the fact that Brayden had given her a number of crew evals which were showing worrying results. As XO, Jonathan needed to be informed as to what was going on.

Even though she'd promised herself she would avoid one to one contact with the XO for a few days, in this case, with the crew and her role as temp chief of counselling, this took priority.

=^=Doctor Ni Dhuinn to Commander Holliday; Could you please call by to see me in sickbay at your earliest convenience?=^=

The middle of the evening was hardly a busy time for Jonathan. His shift on the bridge was only a few hours old, and as of yet nothing had happened that would have given him cause for concern. With the repair and resupply missions both underway, there really wasn't a great deal for him to do except look at the image of a starbase interior on the viewscreen. The call from Sickbay was, if anything, a welcome cause to escape, and the XO wasted no time in handing over the Bridge to his subordinates and heading to the turbolift.

It was extremely out of place for John to be called to Sickbay like this, in fact as far as he was aware, there was no reason for him to be there. His medical had been complete, his psych evaluation was up to date, and as far as he was aware, there were no further requisition orders for him to sign off on medical supplies. His questions would soon be answered when he got there, at least that's what he hoped.

"You called Doctor?"

Limping slightly to the door of her office, Pola smiled across at Jonathan. She was tired at this point and her foot was starting to hurt again, she'd been pushing it too hard throughout the day and kept refusing painkillers. Waving the XO over, Pola limped back over to her seat behind her desk, indicating for Jonathan to take the one in front of her. "Sorry about this Commander but I've a number of items I need to review with you which weren't appropriate to bring up in the senior meeting."

Watching the Doctor make her way to the office, John couldn't help but be intrigued as to what had caused her current predicament. Taking up an offer of a chair adjacent to her, he settled himself down and folded his arms in his lap, before curiosity got the better of him.

"That foot looks a little sore...."

Smiling wearily across at her boss, Pola shrugged her shoulders gently, "I got distracted during a ballet move, figured I'd test the surgical skills of our new Doctor, Doc..sorry Lieutenant JG White. I'm happy to report his skills are top notch. Just don't turn off the inertial dampeners anytime soon or I might fall over."

Leaning across the desk, Pola handed Jonathan a PADD containing the information she wished to discuss with him. "On the matter of the state of health of your senior staff, that is part of why Ive called you here. In the absence of a Chief of Counselling, it falls to me to update you on the psychological state of your crew and any concerns our counsellor has taken note of."

Graciously accepting the PADD, John made a note in his head to check that the dampeners were indeed working, the last thing he needed was a half crippled chief of department on his hands....but that was a job for later. The report in front of him was indeed extensive, but he was about ready to try and digest it himself before heading back the Bridge.

"Well Doctor...I'm ready for your report whenever you are"

Sitting back in her chair, Pola picked up her own PADD as a guideline, this was the first of such meetings and the topics to be discussed seemed vast. "First and foremost, an observation I made at our meeting this morning. I get the feeling our department heads aren't really interacting much together. Each head seems to be doing their own thing and then sometimes reporting to you. I'm not sure how comfortable you are with this happening but from my perspective I think it's both dangerous and also doesn't lead to a good atmosphere. Things are not being communicated which is leading to upsets and misunderstandings as they don't know eachother."

Looking down at her notes, Pola reviewed what she had written, "I have a couple of ideas for trying to help improve this such as more regular senior staff briefings or even doing some team building exercises once a week maybe involving the holodeck."

"I'll take that under advisement....although I doubt we're going to have time for such activities at present...there's a mission to be completed, and as far as I'm concerned there's no better remedy for a lack of teamwork than a joint objective to pull people together....just as long as I'm not wrong on that right now, I can put up with a little bit of chaos."

John tapped a few notes of his own onto the copy of the report that he held on his PADD, making sure to follow up on the data before too long. A more productive senior staff was always going to be beneficial to the whole shipboard atmosphere, but right now, he couldn't even begin to fathom when there would be space to make it happen.

"What you have them doing now should help, you've sent people off in groups to work together which should in theory help but keep an eye on it. Evidence again of information not being shared is usually a subtle indicator things are not well. I take on board the current mission is taking up a lot of time but it mightn't be any harm to try fit something in on our flight back, especially when we need to travel through Klingon space again. Giving people something to do will mean they will spend less time worrying about external factors such as the Klingons." Marking that item off her list, Pola shifted in her chair, moving her sore foot up to balance on her right knee.

"On the subject of Klingons. I'm sure security has made you aware of on-going friction in relation to unease the crew is feeling. The warp core malfunction hasn't helped nor the presence of the Klingon escort through their space. Because we have such a small crew, people are getting antsy very easily. Fights have been recorded as breaking out. Thankfully at this point it's been brought back under control easier." Bringing up the records on her PADD, Pola glanced up at Jonathan.

"I'm at a loss as to how to help people in this situation. It's a form of,,,I guess you could describe it as cabin fever, that was breaking out, people being cooped up in a small space with lots of worries surrounding them. I would recommend that a good amount of shore leave be allowed to people to visit the station, give them some downtime, and not rush them. I understand we have a mission to complete but if we have repeats on the way back of all of this them it could become unmanageable."

"Sounds like I need to speak with some of the junior crew myself....can't have us going into a dangerous situation with unknown elements in our ranks....when we get back to Earth I'll authorise some shore leave"

"If you do talk to them, try be....well I guess nice. If you go into a situation like this guns blazing, threatening, or reprimanding then it may only serve to have people feel more on edge compared to how they already were. What a lot of these people need is reassurances, if something bad happens with the warp core or the Klingons that they will be protected, not in immediate danger, as they've a command who will do everything in their power to protect their people." Shifting in her chair, Pola held her gaze on Jonathan, she knew that that statement might not have gone down well but she hoped he'd hear her out.

"We are a crew of primarily scientists. The way their minds work is different to you and me. They view the world as technical and how it's build and created. Even though it's a given that Command will protect their people, sometimes reassurances wouldn't go amiss."

"I'll have to see what I can do in that respect. I need to know that everyone on board is working to their optimum capability, and a ship full of scared or overworked scientists just isn't going to be the way forward."

Turning back to his PADD, John tapped in a few more commands to remind him to discuss this with the CO during their next staff briefing. It was exactly this kind of information he relied on getting from his senior officers in order to keep Galileo in peak condition.

Realising she had one more business orientated item, Pola looked over at Jonathan, "I do have one request. Do you feel there is a necessity at this point to be keeping an eye open for a possible saboteur? The reason I ask is because if this is the case, I request permission to brief Lieutenant JG White on what is happening as he is counselling our crew at the moment, thus in the best position to spot behaviour which maybe an early indicator. Also the Lieutenant is the person best posed to be able to judge people and not jump to conclusions."

The request from the young Irishwoman came as a little bit of a shock to him, after all just a few hours previously he had instructed all senior officers to restrict information to only those who absolutely had to have knowledge of what was going on. For a moment, he thought on the subject, it was true that having an extra set of eyes and ears on the ground could be useful, but the XO hadn't even met the young Lieutenant since he had come aboard, and for now, he did not feel the officer to have earned his trust.

"I'm sorry Doctor but I just can't risk a security breach - request denied. For now I want this kept to the senior crew as long as possible."

Letting out a sigh, Pola nodded her head, making a note on her PADD. She could understand the need to keep this under wraps but it didn't help her work load. This would mean she herself would need to be vigilant in checking over psych evals on top of the workload of being both CMO and Acting Chief Counsellor.

Placing her PADD on the table, Pola wasn't 100 percent certain how to bring up this last part, but as it was her duty, she didn't have much choice. "Um...this is purely because I have a responsibility towards you as your acting chief counsellor...you seemed a little stressed and frustrated at the senior meeting. How are you handling everything?"

The reversion of his doctor into his counsellor was something that John hadn't yet had to experience. It had been difficult enough for him to accept McCarthy into that role, but now to find himself being psycho analysed by yet another individual was something that was going to take a little adjustment.

"Frustrated at the possibility of someone not playing on the same side as the rest of us yes, stressed, certainly not....I've...I've started taking steps to reduce that impact on my personal life once I step off the Bridge...and for now, it seems to be working pretty well...I even impress myself some days"

Nodding her head, Pola was satisfied with that answer and paired with the overall behaviour of Jonathan during their meeting, the Doctor could see he was coping well. She'd still had to ask the question though. "Well you know where myself and Lieutenant JG White is should you ev....."

Pola sat up as an alarm rang through the office. As the monitor on her desk lit up, the Doctor glanced at it quickly before moving into main sick at a run, heading for a bed in the far area where one of the patients was lying. Each step had a strike of pain run through her ankle but that wasn't her concern now. "Someone get me 10cc's of inaprovaline and 5cc's of morathial now!" Reaching the bio bed, Pola looking down to find the woman lying there with her eyes open, a panic evident in their depths. Placing her hand softly on the patient's arm, Pola bent down slightly in order to be on level with the woman, "Drusilla...It's ok, can you hear me?" Watching the woman's eyes move towards her face, the Doctor witnessed the look of panic increasing. It suddenly dawned on Pola that Drusilla didn't know her. Looking around, the Doctor spotted the XO, "Jonathan I need you over here."

As she tried to take in what was happening, Drusilla tried to understand where she was. All she could remember was a flash of pain and then darkness. Looking up at the ceiling she was aware of a sheet tucked around her and an alarm going off. Trying to look around for the sound, she felt as if her body was awash with quicksand, even though she could move it was with great difficulty. As she became aware of a soft spoken woman speaking, the counsellor moved her head slightly, fighting a panic which tightened in her chest. Even though the woman wore a teal coloured uniform she was a stranger. Where was she? What was going on? Attempting to get up, Dru found herself unable to gain the energy. As she heard the woman call out she felt her fear increase, who was Jonathan?


[TBC]

--

CMDR Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Lt JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

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